The use of credit cards in modern society has become standardized in that users purchase items or services on credit rather than carry large amounts of cash. The use of identification cards has become so important in the process of authentication that a specific individual can conduct an electronic transaction or enter a controlled access area.
With the rapid advent of these cards, a security problem is generated also. Cards are lost and stolen and sometimes counterfeited. The losses from the use of lost or stolen or counterfeited card are now running annually in the hundreds of millions of dollars. There have been prior art attempts to supply unique cards that cannot be counterfeited and if stolen would be unusable by the possessor. One such card is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,728,521, Apr. 17, 1973, entitled Encoded Card Employing Fiber Optic Elements. The patent discloses a credit card having a layer of light transmitting elements such as fibers extending between two edges, the fibers being individually capable of transmitting magnetic radiant energy, in the visible, ultraviolet, or infrared spectral regions.
According to the present invention, a method is disclosed of manufacturing a plastic secure identification card, utilizing fiber optic elements, which would allow the generation of a binary coded electro-optical signal uniquely identifying that card. The present concept utilizes a device much like a standard credit card except that the plastic card would include an array of N many optical fibers. Disclosed herein are the actual initial manufacturing processes for use in making these cards. Grooves to receive the optical fibers, such as those with a `vee` cross-sectional configuration, are formed in a substrate and superstrate to receive a series of discrete optical fibers. Other groove configurations can be used as well. The fibers would be laid in a parallel manner at some distance from one another. Once the fibers have been laid into the grooves in the substrate card layer, the superstrate layer is positioned approximately above the substrate so that their grooves are aligned and a closest fit containing the fiber within the upper and lower grooves will be obtained. The two layers will be bonded together by thermal or adhesive means depending on the characteristics of the materials used.